New Zealand-based mobile specialist Hyperfactory has scooped eight nominations - more than any other agency bar RG/A - for the Webby Awards 2009, a.k.a the Oscars of the internet.

Dubbed by The New York Times as “the internet’s highest honour” the Webby Awards are now in their 13th year.

Winners, who will be announced in New York on May 5, will be decided by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), a global organisation of “industry experts and technology innovators” that includes Miramax’ Harvey Weinstein, Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Jamie Oliver, internet co-inventor and Google executive Vin Cerf, and David Bowie.

The advertising community is able to cast its own vote in a parallel set of People's Voice Webbys, just opened for voting.

Hyperfactory’s nominated campaigns include “Peyton’s Priceless Pep Talks” for Mastercard in the US, featuring NFL star Peyton Manning, “Augmented Reality”, for Nike Hong Kong; Fanta Virtual Tennis, a game, screen saver and wallpaper created for Coca Cola; and “Voices” - a series of “talking posters” created for the UN.

Its eight awards put Hyperfactory in the running for the Webby’s first-ever Agency of the Year Award, which will be presented to the agency that performs the best across all categories.

Other agencies in contention include RG/A with 14 nominations, Wieden + Kennedy (8 nominations), Crispin, Porter + Bogusky (8), DDB (6), Razorfish (5), Goodby Silverstein + Partners (4)  and BBDO (4). Of the advertising holding companies, the two front-runners are Omnicom with 17 nominations, followed by Interpublic with 15. (See the full list of nominees here).

Overall, viral internet videos and clever exploitation of social networks - both web-based and moible - are attracting a lot of the Webbys 09 buzz, including the Whopper Sacrifice campaign on Facebook, Yearbook Yourself and Exteme Sticky Notes Experiments.

While it’s an outstanding achievement for Hyperfactory to be in the running for so many gongs, can it still be called a New Zealand agency?

These days co-founder and chief executive Derek Handley (a Bayer/NBR Top 60 Innovator in 2007) bases himself in LA, and the company has people in New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sydney.

“Our head office is still in New Zealand,” Mr Handley tells NBR. “Our Auckland office produces and executes ALL the work – every single program that ever comes out of The Hyperfactory, is produced out of Auckland.

“Also – the Sydney and Hong Kong campaigns (for the UN and Nike respectively) were conceieved, managed and delivered by New Zealanders expatriated from Hyperfactory HQ who are now located in those markets on the ground.

“Everyone in the US market knows of us as a Kiwi company.”

The Webby Awards 2009 also include a slew of other New Zealand contenders, including AimProximity, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise and Xero.

The Webbys famously restrict acceptance speeches to five words. Famous example's include Al Gore's "Please don't recount this vote" and Stephen Colbert's "Me. Me. Me. Me. Me".